WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY is no fairy tale. it’s a true story about the renaissance that took place between 1984 and 1994 at the fabled WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS and how DISNEY animation regained its magic with a staggering output of hits including THE LITTLE MERMAID, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, ALADDIN, THE LION KING and more. available on DVD november 30 from BUENA VISTA HOME ENTERTAINMENT, the 86-minute documentary features the people who were actually there — MICHAEL EISNER, JEFFREY KATZENBERG, ROY E.DISNEY, JOHN LASSETER and others. directed by DON HAHN, who produced some of the period’s biggest hits, and produced by PETER SCHNEIDER, who led the animation group during this amazing period and later became studio chairman, WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY gives viewers an unprecedented look at the conflict, drama and tension that ushered in a decade of unparalleled disney creativity.

after WALT’S death, without his hands-on supervision, by the mid-1980’s the DISNEY animation division had fallen on hard times. the artists were polarized between newcomers hungry to innovate and old timers not yet ready to relinquish control. these conditions produced a series of box-office flops and pessimistic forecasts that led everyone to wonder if the best days of animation were over. HAHN and SCHNEIDER provide a fascinating and candid perspective of what happened in the creative ranks as MICHAEL EISNER, JEFFREY KATZENBERG and the late ROY E.DISNEY (WALT’S nephew) worked to breathe new life into the company. HAHN and
SCHNEIDER bring insider knowledge, and offer refreshing candor and humorous anecdotes in describing ego battles, cost overruns and failed experiments, set against dynamic tensions with top leadership.

HORST HAITZINGER, born 1939 in austria, is one of the best known political caricature artists in germany. already as a student he published his first drawings in the satirical magazine SIMPLIZISSIMUS, from the mid-sixties on he works for numerous publications. for daily newspapers he creates one or more drawings a day, about 15.000 so far. his unique robust brushstroke-style as well as his sarcastic irony are very well known in the german speaking parts of europe. his beautiful watercolors, oil-paintings and black/white drawings are in exhibitions and published regularly. following is a small selection of my favorite watercolors.

DER PHANTASTISCHE FILM ( the fantastic film ) was a series of science fiction- / fantasy- and horror-films on the air monthly from 1970 on in the 2.german tv-program ZDF. some of the shown treasures were THE TIME MACHINE, JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, THE INNOCENTS, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED and KING KONG. the title of the series was designed by HEINZ EDELMANN. below some EDELMANN storyboard sketches and captured scenes from the trailer.

MR.ARKADIN, released between 1955 in spain, 1956 in germany and 1962 in the US, is another one of my favorite ORSON WELLES films. he directed the film, but was ( uncredited ) responsible as well for the art direction, costume design and editing. the cinematography in this black/white thriller is by JEAN BOURGOIN. below are some captured scenes to show you the incredible use of the camera, and some of the unusual compositions throughout the whole film.

once in a while students ask me about the education process during my years in artschool and are surprised how much time was spent with actual drawing. looking back, I started my studies in 1969, and I remember the day when I realized that I consciously SAW the things in front of my eyes, not just looked at them. that was the major goal in the first ANALYTICAL drawing classes, to learn HOW TO SEE. the drawing happened automatically.

the school I went to followed the academic teaching principles of the BAUHAUS-school. WALTER GROPIUS, 1883 – 1969, was one of the founders of the BAUHAUS-school together with a distinguished group of teachers in germany directly after the ending of WW1, in 1919. the schools purpose was to pursue new forms and new solutions to man’s basic needs as well as his aesthetic ones. the BAUHAUS-curriculum returned to fundamentals, the basic materials, the basic rules of design. and the question they dared to ask led to new definitions of beauty in the unadorned and practical aspects of the functional.

in my art school, the FOLKWANG-SCHOOL, the first exercises in the ANALYTICAL-drawing class during the first semester were to draw a plant, a chair and two stacked chairs. it looked simple first but turned out to be a major challenge. the drawings had to be huge, DIN A1, and had to be drawn with hard charcoal sticks on cheap grey packing paper. the motif had to fit exactly into the format. well, you better learn to control SIZE, ANGLES, LINE-DIRECTIONS and SHAPE overall, besides the ovious details of the object.

even after a short time of this practice I noticed that it became easier and easier to understand SHAPES, to organize them and then draw them precise.
the motifs became more challenging, I actuallly was searching for very complicated objects like an oldfashioned telephone, scissors or typewriters. we all improved, and after the most part of the first semester we started to draw our hands, the first step towards – LIFE-DRAWING.

at the end of semester 1 we were asked to combine the analytical experience with what we had learned in the composition- and color-classes. as you can see in my drawing, not everything was too serious.
the images I am posting here are only a few examples, there were dozens for every step. paralell to the drawing class for 2 days/week was one day DESIGN – composition and color, one day 3-DIMENSIONAL design with cardboard and other materials, and one day TYPOGRAPHY, understanding and creating font designs. shorter courses were PERSPECTIVE and PRINT-MAKING ( lithography and etching ). there was no cartoon or animation in the curriculum ( at that time it was not considered as a ‘serious’ artform in germany ), I had to cover that in my spare time and learn from the few books on the market.

ABOUT ME

my name is hans bacher, – I work as production designer in the animation film industry. for the last 40 years I lived and worked in duesseldorf, london, paris, los angeles, manila and tokyo. now I am professor for film-design at the nanyang techn. university in singapore.